AAW Jim Lynam Memorial Tournament (7/10/16) Night 1 Review

Added 27/10/2016 by Ben Mendall

After just watching all 3 nights of BOLA, I am onto another tournament, but here, this one is from one of my favorite companies in the whole damn world, AAW. This show has a pretty darn good card, featuring AR Fox vs. Fenix, which is going to be insane, and Chris Hero vs. Kongo Kong, which is also going to be insane. Before the show actually started, there was a moving video package about Jim Lynam, the late owner of AAW, and the person this show is in honor of.

Heidi Lovelace vs. Melanie Cruise

Non tournament action kicking off the show, and some women’s action! Not that familiar with Cruise, I know about her, but have not watched a lot of her matches, but Heidi is just amazing. Cruise took control early on, dominating Heidi, and bantering back and forth with the crowd. Tossing her back and forth across the ring. The match became more fast paced and they went back and forth until Cruise just slams Heidi. But Cruise quickly turns the battle back in her favor very quickly. Heidi fired up a great babyface comeback and but still got hit with a chokeslam and a snake eyes, but she still kicked out. Heidi eventually hit a back senton off the top for the win. Solid win. Heidi is a great baby face and this was on show case here. **1/2

Davey Vega vs. Chuck Taylor

An interesting match up, this could either be great in ring or be pretty darn funny match. And this went the comedy route primarily, and sadly, a lot of it was kind of dumb penis biting. Taylor was the best part, as the comedic selling of is bitten penis was quite funny. But that was about it for the comedy I laughed at. The comedy eventually subsided and they put on a pretty solid match. I wish it was more of this as I really liked this part and the comedy was overbearing at some points. Taylor eventually got the win with an Awful Waffle. **1/2 Mat Fitchett vs. Silas Young Let me start this off by saying, Fitchett has been having an amazing year and winning this tournament would be great for his career. Silas Young is also very good, great solid worker. Silas was just beating the hell out of Fitchett and his selling was great. Silas was just such an asshole so that when this great babyface, Mat Fitchett, eventually came back and got the win, it was so sweet to watch, and also great in ring. Fitchett reversed the Finlay roll into a Crucifix and got the win with a 3 count. Really good stuff here from these 2.***1/2

ACH vs. Brian Cage

What a surprise here! Brian Cage was supposed to wrestle Josh Alexander, but it recently came out that he got stopped at the US border and sadly won’t be back for a bit. Greg Iron at first came out but Cage destroyed him after a promo and ACH then came, out of nowhere, with a surprise return! This was a very fun match. ACH was on display with a lot of fast paced maneuvers. A little bit too much sloppiness and awkwardness though, leading to some moments that felt off. ACH eventually got the best of Cage with his speed and a roll up. I felt like this could of been way better but it was a ton of fun. ***1/4

Colt Cabana vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

On paper, this looked dreadful. I really do not like Colt’s comedy shtick that he does every match now. Every match is the same damn thing. I had a little hope ZSJ would carry him into an ok match, and I love ZSJ. But Jesus, what a big surprise this one was. I was not expecting such a strong outing from both of these guys here. Colt held his own, showing his well know admiration for the British style and using it to his advantage. There was a great deal of intensity, which was odd from these 2. Zack eventually got the win with a nice and nasty arm submission. This may be the best Colt match in a long while. ****

Mustafa Ali vs. Ethan Page

Ethan Page returns to AAW, after leaving for a little bit. To be honest, I did not know what to think about this on paper. And it never really delivered. This was mainly Ali getting in a ton of good looking offense, with All Ego barely getting anything in, which is a bit odd. This was just little more than a squash, as Ethan Page did get in some cool power moves that did not make it seem that it was always one sided. Ali eventually gets the win. ***3/4

Drew Gulak vs. Jeff Cobb

On paper, this looks like it would be such a darn good match. These 2 both like the match on the ground, but have different styles in a way. Cobb is a legit Olympic wrestler and Gulak is the master of Catch Point. And this was kind of underwhelming but it was also a ton of fun and I really liked it. I was a bit let down by the mat work, especially after the hot start this battle contained. Cobb is just so good at throwing around people, all match long. Cobb eventually got the win with a great combo of throwing Gulak around and then dropping him with a nice Powerslam. So odd to see a powerslam be used as such a sick finish, not usual in this day and age. ***1/2

Rey Fenix vs. AR Fox Fenix

Now donning the name “Rey Fenix”, has recently quit AAA and proclaimed that AAW is his new home. This puts a lot of pride on the line for the man that just moved in. And this battle was against AR Fox, you knew this was going to be a great spot fest. And lo and behold, it was! What did you think this match was going to be going into it? This had to have been crazy, and it just damn was. This match was a little under 10 minutes and it delivered, big time. Fenix eventually won with a modified piledriver, seem to be of the tombstone variation. If you like high paced action and a ton of flips, this is great for you. ****

Chris Hero vs. Kongo Kong

2 big lads going at it. But one problem. Kong Kong is a very big lad. Like crazy big. One of the biggest big men in wrestling, and he is surprisingly very good in ring. But he Is going up against the legit GOAT and Greatest now. They had a bout once before last year in IWA-MS, while Kong was in his championship reign. Hero tried and tried but this big giant proved tough to be put away. The crowd was a bit dead which is understandable after all this wrestling but this match was amazing. Kong eventually lost to a great Botch Piledriver. This was a great one, Kong came out of this one looking like a star. ****

AAW Title Match: Pentagon Jr. (c) vs. Sami Callihan This was a bit of an underwhelming. Their other match was quite good so I pretty hyped up, especially that it was going to be “death match” rules. This could have been the perfect main event but it felt squandered. With the crowd being gassed up, a lot of the moments felt like they weren’t all that cool. There was a pretty funny spot though, including some legos, those things are so deadly. A lot of chair shots that were unprotected that had me cringing. Pentagon eventually won with the Package Piledriver. A for effort though, as they put in hard work. ***

This was quite the good outing from AAW. Some underwhelming matches but this was a great night 1 to get me hyped for Night 2.